I found interesting that it takes them only 11-12 days to grow that much that they are ready to leave the nest. Compare with 4-5 weeks for cockatiels, and doves are larger birds. Amazing

There could be a chance that the dove started getting sick a couple days ago, and gradually worsened. it's always hard to tell, with baby birds. One minute, they could seem lively and healthy, and the next, they drop dead. That was in a way, what happened with my baby dove, though I think it was the draft in the room I put her cage in, that got to her.
I was preparing to host a party, and we decided it was a good idea to put her cage somewhere out of the way, so we put her in the spare bedroom. I knew it was chilly, but I thought the heating pad was enough. Apparently not.


I honestly don't understand dove hunting. On top of the fact that it just seems cruel, I doubt doves are really that filling when being eaten (because people do that), considering how small they are. There's a Dove and Pigeon rescue in San fransisco, that talks about things like that. Apparently, people raise king pigeons, specifically for eating, as well.

It always amazes me how fast they grow. Even the dove I was raising, while takes longer than the species you found, still is a fast growing species, taking around 17 days. Maybe that's why doves and pigeons are considered vermin, sometimes? Fast growing babies would mean more birds reproducing per year.

thank you. It was hot outside, about 93F, and it seemed hot to me, so when I put her in the box, I had the box still outside for some time in the evening, for air flow. Air in garage was rather stagnant, I thought it was difficult to be there when you are dehydrated. I thought fresh air was better. Apparently I was wrong.
Today when I buried her, I saw that her butt had poop stuck to it, but baby didn't leave any poop in the box even being there for a few hours.

Let me ask about aspirating. In case aspiration happens, the death is immediate, correct? I put her in the box after feeding, she was breathing, I went inside to get wet cloth to clean her, came back, cleaned her, she was still breathing, and then I found her dead about an hour later. It wasn't aspiration, right? I was just putting her beak into the food (in a plastic spoon, or into sandwich bag with cut corner) - and a few times she made a move like she was slurping the food in, I wonder if I didn't put her beak too deep into the food.

the baby on your picture looks very close to the one I had here

Guess who I see today eating seeds on the front? Mama or papa Dove! I am so pissed that they didn't get down to the baby yesterday! I wish I put him back into the nest or make him a new one!

last year we also had a windstorm that threw out of the nest robin's nestlings. Mom was sitting on the ground next to them. I put them back but saw that the nest was getting way too small (there were total 3 babies with pin feathers). Soon 2 fell out again and one didn't make it. I returned another one back to the nest and mom was taking care of her 2 babies a bit longer, but then one day I saw that she is not coming to the nest anymore. I climbed the ladder to look inside but the nest was empty. I still wonder what happened to them. I don't think they were old enough to just fly away, plus this way mom wouldn't look so sad.

Do squirrels seriously hunt for baby birds??? today I saw a squirrel chasing sparrows and it looked strange.

now mama dove sitting and walking under the tree like she is looking for someone... where was she yesterday I wonder????
It's just heartbreaking

It doesn't cause immediate death. Aspiration to birds is pretty much the same when our food "goes down the wrong pipe". The solution to it for birds is about the same as it is for us: They cough it up. It's not much of a serious problem, unless if it happens often. I doubt that's what killed the baby dove, though.

I don't know if squirrels do hunt baby birds. I originally thought they were strictly herbivores. But according to the internet, they apparently do eat them, as well as unhatched eggs.

The dove in the picture was quite younger than the one you found. It's wings were feathered, but it still had pins on it's head, and the bottom half of the face wasn't covered, so I would imagine she was much younger. She fell out of a tree at the elementary school my sister worked at, in an area they called the "hummingbird garden". A hawk was about to get her, but my sister found her at the right place and the right time. I took over hand feeding, which was tricky at first, because I didn't know how doves fed their babies at the time. She kept pecking at the syringe, as if she knew it meant food, but didn't quite know how to get in it.

The poor mother. I wonder if she was a first time parent? Doves don't always know what to do, first time they raise young, so if something was wrong, they wouldn't exactly know how to handle it. I remember watching a video of two doves trying to raise their young, and their babies died mysteriously. The father was watching over them at that time, and he was frantically pecking at them, trying to revive them. It was really sad.

Maybe something caused her to flee, that day? I wonder where the father was, as well. They usually take care of the babies in shifts, feeding them when needed and keeping them warm, while the other parent goes to eat and go to the bathroom.

But kind to think of it, the day my dove died, she also had poop stuck to her bum, that morning. She was still alive that time, and accepted food just fine. Now I wonder, if whatever might have killed my dove (other than the draft), might be an illness that your baby dove also had?

Both parents were here today spending a lot of time on the grass. They both seem to be perfectly fine but maybe sad.
I had tons of birds today.
I guess I had 3 scenarios in this situation
- put him back to the nest (but the nest was quite high so I am not sure how I would get there even with the ladder) or make another nest
- leave him where he was (which I did until the night). I don't think he would survive thru the night on the ground but who knows. We don't seem to have serious predators here but the wind was too bad and he was already weak without nutrition.
- do what I did - try to rescue him. Apparently it was too much stress for him

Well, what the parents can do when the nestling is on the ground? Even experienced parents couldn't do much. I guess they don't feed fallen babies unless they already fledged. I just picked the wrong scenario as I was thinking he was already a fledgling

Now I feel really bad that I didn't put him back into the nest